Rome, 8 June 2024 – He died in flight as he had lived, William Anders90 years old, the NASA astronaut who from Apollo 8 mission he photographed the “rising of the Earth” from space.
The man of the world shot
That image it went around the world. It was Christmas Eve 1968, it was the first manned spaceflight to reach the Moon.
Anders, one of the best pilots the United States Air Force could count on, thanks to that shot entered the collective imagination.
William Anders died at age 90 in a plane crash
Anders, who died in flight as he lived
His life was never tied to Earth and just as he was in flight he’s gone, falling into the sea as he was at the controls of a small plane. His son, Greg, confirmed the crash off the coast of Washington state. The body was recovered from the wreckage of Beechcraft AA 45also known as the T-34, a military training aircraft slightly younger than its pilot.
The words of the family
“The family is devastated. He was a great pilot. We will miss him,” read a statement reported by the BBC.
The history of space photography
Anders piloted the lunar module in the Apollo 8 mission and it was he who gave the title ‘Earthrise’ (untranslatable into Italian, but which sounds more or less like ‘earth’s dawn’) to one of the most memorable and inspiring images of the Earth from space. He himself later described it as his own most significant contribution to the space program. The image is widely credited with motivating the global environmental movement and leading to the creation of Earth Day, an annual event to promote activism and awareness of caring for the planet. Speaking of that moment, Anders uttered a phrase that also entered history: “We came here to explore the Moon, and the thing most important thing we discovered was the Earth”.
The words of Bill Nelson (Nasa)
“In 1968, during Apollo 8, William Anders gave humanity one of the most profound gifts an astronaut can give. He traveled to the edge of the Moon and It helped us all see something else: ourselves.”NASA administrator Bill Nelson wrote in a note.
